East meets west: An exploration of masculinity and femininity in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Uy, Arnel Onesimo O., Teahen, Julia, Murphy, Edward F., Monserrat, Sylvia Ines, Greenwood, Regina A., Santos, Neusa Maira Bastos F., Ruiz-Gutierrez, Jaime, Olivas-Lujan, Miguel R., Madero, Sergio
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Bem Sex-Role Inventory; Masculinity—Philippines; Femininity—Philippines; Gender identity—Philippines; Gender and Sexuality
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/12644
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this research was to explore gender schema theory in the Philippines by exploring the validity of the Ben Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), both long and short forms, with working adults in the Philippines. No known studies have explored the validity of this instrument with working adults in the Philippines. The BSRI long form and short form have been validated in Western samples and have had mixed results in non-western samples. Five hundred eighty-three working adults completed the BSRI long form and a demographic questionnaire. We evaluated the factor structures of masculinity and femininity for Philippine males and females using the BSRI long form and then compared the results to the BSRI short form. Factor analysis results indicated that the BSRI short form was more valid than the long form for working adults in the Philippines. The long form showed that two masculine and five feminine traits should be eliminated from the instrument, so we eliminated these seven traits and thirteen others, producing the BSRI short form. The factor structure of the BSRI short form showed internal validity for all 10 masculine and 10 feminine items and the Cronbach's alpha was higher for the short form as compared to the long form. We discuss the implications of these findings, limitations of the study and make recommendations for further research.